Abstract:

In the European Higher Education Space, great emphasis has been placed on promoting active methodologies in learning and continuous evaluation for training purposes. Several strategies for active learning of the evidence-based practice have been described.

Infographics are commonly used in the informative field because they can explain events, describe situations, expose processes, etc., so its use is beginning to spread in the education field.
Therefore, this study aims to describe a teaching innovation experience carried out during the 2019-2020 academic year that consists of using the creation of infographics by students to work on evidenced-based content of different topics in health-related degrees at the Miguel Hernández University (MHU).
Five lecturers and 142 students from the Health Sciences Faculty (83 women and 59 men, mean age 22.3±5.6 years), belonging to the degrees of Physiotherapy (n = 97), Occupational Therapy, (n = 36) and Podiatry (n = 9) have participated voluntarily in this project, that has been granted by the MHU.
In this activity, we propose that students work the technical contents in a targeted and reflective way, to potentially be published, both on social media and in health or fitness centers (hospitals, fitness and gyms centers, or patient associations). From a didactic point of view, this scenario generates the need and requirement to study in-depth the contents that will make up the infographic, which would be the final product, and a thorough bibliographic review of the available evidence in this regard and the consultation of practice guidelines should be carried out. Subsequently, the participants must analyze and summarize the information by extracting the main parts and must make the effort to capture these ideas in a graphic, intelligible, orderly, summarized, and attractive way.

To carry out this process, a first meeting was held with all the students to explain the objectives of the activity, and its consideration within the continuous evaluation of the courses involved (10%). The work in pairs was proposed, who had to select a work topic related to the contents of the ilvolved subjects. Subsequently, each couple had scheduled at least two tutoring sessions with the lecturer, to discuss the development of the topic and to supervise the process of information search and selection. This part of the process has been carried out virtually as it coincides with the alarm state generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the students, within the indicated period, delivered a draft, reviewed by the teacher, and later a design proposal.

The best infographic proposals have been selected for editing and professional layout, for which there has been institutional funding. Finally, a satisfaction assessment (0, not at all satisfied, and 10 very satisfied) with participation in this activity was carried out. The perceived degree of satisfaction ranges from 9 to 10. The degree of motivation is 9 points out of 10 for the entire sample. Of the total sample, 139 students declared that they were very satisfied or satisfied with their participation in the activity, and 98.8% would recommend the activity to other classmates.

In conclusion, we consider that this is a motivational strategy for work basic skills for evidenced-based health sciences, such as literature searching, analyzing information and subsequent critical processing, an issue that appears as academic competence in university degrees.

Keywords:

Infographics, evidenced-based health sciences, active learning